MG Car Club of South Australia
MGC NEWS
from Ian Hobbs, MGC Register Co-ordinator, June 2019
T
The 2019 Torsion Bar Run
his year’s Torsion Bar run featured
a cube, a d’Arenberg Cube. A loyal
bunch of MGC drivers attended the run;
there was Jim in his red roadster, Ron
in his red GT and just for a change of
colour I arrived in my red GT. Jim
brought along a very polite Japanese,
English student, Yuki, for the ride. Rid-
ing through the Adelaide Hills landscape
was a new experience for him particu-
larly in an open sports car.
We met in the usual place in the south
Parklands and headed south along Ful-
larton Road. Up through Blackwood
and along Main Road and Clarendon
Road to Clarendon and along Kangarilla
Road to Kangarilla. We turned right and
went along McLaren Flat Road to … I’m
not going to mention the town we were
headed toward; you have to guess. A
right-hand turn in McLaren Flat, oops,
and we drove along those back-block
McLaren Vale roads that seem to
change their names at every intersec-
tion.
Taking a left-hand turn, another left-
hand turn, and another and finally turn
left into d’Aernberg Winery. Being a
cloudy day, I thought finding a car park
would be easy but there seemed to be
hundreds of cars parked all over the
place. Another left-hand turn and we
were off toward the vineyards but before
we got there we found a park under
several Grey Boxes; I mean Eucalyptus
macrocarpa.
When I was a little younger, I used to go
to wineries in the McLaren Vale to taste
wine but these days they are a whole
different experience.
At d’Arenberg
24
here were sculptures, walking trails and
restaurants with $125/head lunches (I
wasn’t that hungry) and ones for $210/
head if you were hungry, and of course
there was the Cube.
We headed for Polly’s Wine Lounge in
the old winery for coffee and cake but
no wine; ‘cos we were driving. The cof-
fee was good and the almond, jaffa
brownie was delish. But best of all the
conversation was about MGCs. Yes,
the election was discussed but only
briefly and we also had a short conver-
sation about port. We were told of the
impending trip to Oslo by one of own
intrepid trio and then there was the quiz;
what is the capital of Sweden? No one
could think of it until Ron looked it up on
his phone; “the first letter is a ‘S’”, he
said. There were no answers; “the sec-
ond letter is a ‘T’”. We got it but I’m not
going tell you because you have to
guess; or look it up in your phone.
The Cube was an interesting structure
of five floors with the top two slightly
rotated out of the cubic square. There’s
the restaurant floor, the tasting floor,
Alternate Realities museum floor and a
360degree video room and other tactile
experiences. But we didn’t go in; it was
$10! You need an hour at least to enjoy
all the visual and touchy-feely delights
and we had spent too much time chat-
ting about MGCs and the day was
nearly gone. Entry is free for members
of the Cenosilicaphobic Club, created to
support those people who have a fear
of an empty glass. I’m sure we have a
few Club members who are sufferers,
especially in the T Register.
I’m told the urinals are worth a special
mention; think of those open mouth,